The VisitFlorida.com racing team, featuring the driving duo of Michael Valiante (left) of Burnaby, Canada, and Richard Westbrook (right) of London, England, were the overall winners of the 2015 Tudor United Sportscar Championship at the Monterey Grand Prix. Their No. 90 Corvette DP prototype class car, shown coming out of turn No. 11 down the final straight, took the checkered flag at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday. The second-place No. 10 car of Wayne Taylor Racing,featuring driver brothers Ricky Taylor and Jordan Taylor of Apopka, Florida, isalso a Corvette DP prototype class car. It can be seen just behind the winner, coming into the turn.

The Oakland Raiders selected Amari Cooper as the fourth pick in the 2015 NFL draft.Cooper is the 2014 winner of the Fred Biletnikoff Award, given annually to the nation's top receiver. Cooper was also the 2014 SEC Offensive Player of the Year and a Heisman Trophy finalist. Also pictured, Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie (left) and Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio. Photo by Ed Jay.

The Giants swept the L.A. Angels in three games this past weekend at AT&T Park. The acquisition of Nori Aoki, above, has provided a spark at the top of the lineup. Aoki is batting .307, with 12 runs scored.

Giants fans were treated to a unique rendition of the national anthem by James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett of the heavy-metal band Metallica during Metallica Day at AT&T Park on Saturday. This was the third annual event involving the band; items from the day will be auctioned off to raise funds for charity. For a video of their performance,click here. Photo by Ed Jay Photography.

Lydia Ko, the No. 1 world-ranked female golfer and eventual winner, walked toward the final holes while acknowledging the gallery. Ko forced a playoff after 18 holes of regulation play in the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic at the Lake Merced Golf Club in San Francisco last month. Ko entered the day three shots behind the leader, but on the second playoff hole she won the tournament for the second year in a row, defeating Morgan Pressel. Ko, who recently turned 18, won a cash prize of $300,000. She was also named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world for the second year in a row.

Several weeks ago Raiders season-ticket holders received an email questionnaire asking them to rank the importance of the Raiders, A's and Warriors on a scale of 1 to 3. The list of questions came from the NFL and the Raiders.

This is all part of the NFL building an information base on the viability of the three cities at risk of losing their franchise: Oakland, St. Louis and San Diego. Many of the questions focused on fan satisfaction with the aging O.co Coliseum, along with their willingness to spend more for tickets at a new stadium.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said: "We are trying to learn as much as we can about the Oakland market. It's no more complicated than that."

Of course it is!

How about these complications over the past year:

Coliseum City

Carson

Inglewood

San Antonio

Oakland A's

Financing

Seat licenses

Levi's Stadium

Rams, Cardinals, Raiders

City, county, JPA

Floyd Kephart

The NFL and the Raiders are positioning fans to come up with the right or wrong answer, however they want to play it. "We have decided that because Raiders fans think that Roto-Rooter Stadium can't be replaced or retrofitted, we have to go south."

Or, "We are going to do everything in our power to work with the Raiders and elected officials to build in Oakland, but we don't know if the A's and Raiders can co-exist."

It's no more complicated than asking parents which of their three children they love the most.

Longtime sports executive Andy Dolich has more than three decades of experience in the professional sports industry, mostly spent in the San Francisco Bay Area. This includes stints in the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL. He operates his consulting business, Dolich & Associates, in Los Altos.

On Saturday afternoon Los Angeles Angels pinch runner Taylor Featherston ran into a batted ball with two outs in the ninth inning and was declared out, ending the game in the Giants' favor, 5-4. The batter, Matt Joyce, was credited with a hit, despite ending the game.

This unusual play is not without precedent and resulted in one of the meanest single plays in the history of the game, a mere 125 years ago!

Pete Browning was a batting champion who played for the Cleveland Infants in 1890. Ad Gumbert was a journeyman pitcher for the Boston Reds. The game in question took place in the Players League, which existed for only one year. Gumbert carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning. With two outs in the ninth, Gumbert hit Browning with a pitch. Browning went to first base, extremely peeved. The next batter hit a fair grounder up the first base line and Browning deliberately let the ball hit him on the foot. Under scoring rules, Browning was called out, but the batter was credited with a single. Game over, no-hitter spoiled.

Browning gets credit in my book for the meanest stunt ever pulled in a major league baseball game.

Richard Lupoff is widely known as a mystery and science fiction writer, but his first gig was covering schoolboy sports for major dailies in New York and Philadelphia. "Once it's in your blood," he says, "it's there forever."

Oakland, Calif., 1975: The Golden State Warriors, world champions of basketball, pose for a team portrait.

Warriors' First and Only Championship Was Sweet

Bruce Macgowan

NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry always gets a little excited when you ask him about the only NBA title won by the Golden State Warriors in the 53 years they've been on the West Coast.

While Barry and fellow Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond sparked the then San Francisco Warriors to the NBA finals against the eventual champion Philadelphia 76ers in 1967, the Warriors team that won it all in 1975 was a much bigger story. After all, coach Al Attles wasn't sure what kind of a club he had going into training camp, what with Thurmond traded to the Chicago Bulls for a young center named Clifford Ray, and veterans such as Cazzie Russell, Jim Barnett and Clyde Lee all having moved on through free agency or trades.

A highly touted but slender 21-year-old rookie from UCLA, forward Keith Wilkes (he later changed his first name to Jamaal), along with young veterans Charles Johnson,Butch Beard, Derrick Dickey, Charles Dudley, center George Johnson, fan favorite Jeff Mullins and USF rookie Phil Smith made up a the bulk of this virtually unknown and unsung team.

By now the Warriors were playing all their games in Oakland and were now known as the Golden State Warriors. The Cow Palace in Daly City and the San Francisco Civic Auditorium (now Bill Graham Arena), where they had previously played, were not considered comfortable or practical by team ownership.

Dick Vertlieb, The Warriors' new GM, made the difficult move of shipping Thurmond to the Bulls for the younger but less expensive Ray. The move turned out to be a huge plus, as the Warriors became more adept at the fast break and Ray combined with Johnson to give the team a two-headed center that collectively averaged about 20 points and 20 rebounds a game.

The Warriors got off to a great start and won 48 games to earn the top playoff spot in the conference.

In the opening playoff round they beat the Seattle SuperSonics in six games but had to hold the Sonics off in a wild game six in Seattle. Afterward, angry fans attacked several Warriors players on the floor.

"I remember a woman came up to me and actually hit me with her purse as I was leaving the floor," an incredulous Barry said afterward.

"Defense is the reason we are where we are," Barry told me as his team looked ahead to a tough series against Chicago. "Defense wins championships, and we've played terrific defense from day one." Against the Bulls the Warriors won games six and seven, coming all the way back from a three-games-to-two deficit.

The Warriors' next opponent would be the Washington Bullets. The Bullets, with the best record in the league that year, featured such stars as Elvin, "Big E" Hayes and power forward Wes Unseld. Again the Warriors, a team that no one had picked to go further than perhaps the conference finals, were the underdog.

"That night I turned on the local news, and one of the Washington-area sports announcers was saying that we had no chance of beating the Bullets," Attles told me years later. "It took everything I had to keep from throwing a chair through that TV screen!"

The Warriors, in typical fashion, found themselves trailing early on, and once again had to scrap from behind. Smith's clutch shooting sparked the comeback, as the Warriors stunned the Bullets for anarrow win in game one.

Game two was played at the Warriors' old home the Cow Palace, because the Oakland Coliseum Arena had already made a commitment to host the Ice Follies. But the Warriors managed to pull off a stunning win as Rick Barry hit key shots and the Warriors defense held on in the final seconds, forcing one bad shot and blocking another to preserve a pulsating one-point win.

Game three was the only game that wasn't really close. The Warriors pulled away and won by double digits, thanks to a 38-point night from Barry. Now in dire straits and trailing in their series three games to none, the Bullets needed some kind of a miracle to upend the Warriors' momentum.

"I wasn't surprised that they would try something desperate to turn this series around," Attles said later. So when tough guy Mike Riordan literally attacked Barry early on, hoping to provoke a fight and get theWarriors star out of the game, Attles ran onto the court to intercede. Wes Unseld, all 6 foot 8 inches and 270 pounds of him, quickly corralled Attles and a wild slugging match ensued, with Attles trying to throw punches while Unseld kept the angry Warriors coach in check by bear hugging him.

"Al Attles went out onto the court clearly as a peacemaker!" an angry Bill King shouted on his radio broadcast. "You have to know that this was a violent and flagrant act by Mike Riordan to draw that kind of attention from the Warriors coach as Al Attles is one of the great gentlemen in the game. Now referee Richie Powers is explaining something to Attles ... he's kicked Attles out of the game! This is ridiculous! THIS IS RIDICULOUS! Al Attles has been kicked out of the game, and now Clifford Ray wants to go after Richie Powers! I can't believe what I'm seeing. This is one of the most unwise and disgraceful decisions I have ever seen an official make."

Again, the Warriors found themselves in a bind, trailing in the final minutes of action. But clutch plays by Dickey, key shots by Smith, Johnson and Barry, and Beard's free throws in the final minute salted away a narrow win.

"Al Attles' Golden State Warriors are the unbelievable champions of the world!" an ecstatic King announced on theradio broadcast, dubbing them "the Cinderellas of the sports world!"

"Rick bought a bunch of bottles of wine for the flight home and guys just had a great time talking about the season," said Ray.

When the Warriors' plane hit the runway in San Francisco at about1 a.m., a crowd of about 7,000 noisy fans plus a number of media were there to greet them. It was a crazy scene, but the players were so happy that they all got up on a makeshift stage and several gave speeches while many spoke with reporters before going into the terminal to pick up their belongings and head home.

The experience of covering that team remains one of my favorite sports memories. And isn't it interesting that it happened 40 years ago this spring, justas we're watching another great Warriors team perhaps duplicate that Cinderella effort.

Bruce Macgowan is a longtime radio/TV sports announcer who has worked in Northern California for almost all of his near 40 years in the profession. He currently works at KGO radio and co-hosts a syndicated radio show, Sports Econ 101, on the Sports Byline radio network.

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There are 279 days left until the Golden Super Bowl at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, on Feb. 7, 2016.

Below is a list of sports bars we recommend for all your sports viewing needs. Each is a worthy institution and they have the added distinction of also being long-time Ultimate Sports Guide advertisers. When you stop in, please extend our thanks.

San Francisco

Abbey Tavern, 4100 Geary Street

The Blue Light, 1979 Union Street

Bus Stop, 1901 Union Street

The Chieftain, 198 5th Street

Danny Coyle's, 668 Haight Street

Dave's, 29 Third Street @ Kearny

Final Final, 2990 Baker @ Lombard

The Holding Company, #2 Embarcadro Center

Il Pirata, 2007 16th Street

Jake's Steaks, 3301 Buchanan Street

Jullian's, 101 4th Street

The Kezar Pub, 770 Stanyan Street

Mad Dog in the Fog, 530 Haight Street

Mucky Duck, 1315 9th Avenue

Nickie's Bar, 466 Haight Street

Players Sports Grill, Pier 39, Buildings L & M

Polo Grounds, 747 3rd Street

East Bay

Brennan's Restaurant, 4th & University, Berkeley

Churchward Pub, 1515 Park Street, Alameda

City Beach, 4020 Technology Place, Fremont

Crogan's Montclair, 6101 La Salle Avenue, Oakland

Cue & Brew, 1029 Arnold Drive, #6, Martinez

Dan's Irish Sports Bar, 1524 Civic Street, Walnut Creek

Diamonds Sports Bar & Grill, 77 Hegenberger, Oakland

Ed's Mudville Grill, 6200 Center Street, Clayton

The Englander, 101 Parrott Street, San Leandro

Evie's, 7138 Village Parkway, Dublin

Francesco's Restaurant, 8520 Pardee Drive, Oakland

Frank's Saloon, 2014 Marina Blvd., San Leandro

Funky Monkey, 22554 Main Street, Hayward

George & Walt's, 5445 College Avenue, Oakland

Grand Oaks Restaurant, 3701 Grand Avenue, Oakland

Go Sports Bar, 736 Washington Street, Oakland

Ivy Room, 860 San Pablo Avenue, Albany

Kingfish, 5227 Claremont, Oakland

Linguini's Pizza & Brew, 1508 Park Street, Alameda

Livermore Casino Sports Bar, 3571 First Street, Livermore

McCovey's Restaurant, 1444 N. California, Walnut Creek

Mr. Lucky's Bar & Grill, 1527 Locust Street. Walnut Creek

Oakland Moose Club, 690 Hegenberger Road

Oaks Corner, 4099 San Pablo, Emeryville

Otaez Mexican Restaurant, 1619 Webster Street, Alameda

Pacific Coast Brewing Co., 906 Washington Street, Oakland

Pasta Pelican, 2455 Mariner Square Drive, Alameda

Pete's Place, 610A San Pablo Avenue, Pinole

Rancho Sports Bar, 3912 San Pablo Dam Road, El Sobrante

Ricky's Sports Grill, 15028 Hesperian Blvd., San Leandro

Sports Edition Bar, Hilton Oakland Airport, Oakland

Stadium Pub, 1420 Lincoln Avenue, Walnut Creek

Tierney's Sports Bar, 540 San Pablo Avenue, Albany

WPLJ's Dance Club, 2112 North Main Street, Walnut Creek

Brisbane

7 Mile House, 2800 Bayshore Blvd.

Burlingame

The American Bull Bar & Grill, 1819 El Camino Real

Knuckles Historical Sports Bar, Hyatt Regency, Burlingame

Campbell

Capers Eat & Drink, 1710 West Campbell

Fair Oaks

Players Sports Pub, 4060 Sunrise Blvd.

Half Moon Bay

Cameron's Restaurant Pub & Inn, 1410 South Cabrillo Hwy

Half Moon Bay Brewing Co., 390 Capistrano Road

Foster City

The Club House Bistro, 1221 Chess Drive

Palo Alto

Sundance The Steakhouse, 1921 El Camino Real

Point Richmond

Up & Under, 2 West Richmond Avenue

San Jose

Bay 101 Casino, 1801 Bering Drive

Britannia Arms, 5027 Almaden Expressway

Britannia Arms, 173 West Santa Clara

Britannia Arms, 1087 De Anza Blvd.

San Rafael

Pete's 881, 721 Lincoln Avenue

Santa Clara

City Beach, 2911 Mead Avenue

Santa Cruz

One Double Oh Seven Club, 1007 Soquel Avenue

Vacaville

Stars Recreation Center, 155 Browns Valley Parkway

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Ultimate Sports Guide, a glossy print publication serving the San Francisco Bay Area with two editions a year, the Spring/Summer Baseball edition and the Fall/Winter Football edition. For expansive photo albums of the local teams, visit our Facebook page and be sure to LIKE us. For an informative e-newsletter mailed to our sports-minded database, CLICK HERE or, send your email address to: theultimatesportsguide@gmail.com.